![\"Principal](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Rodney_Nelson-336x510.jpg\")
<\/a>Jeanna LaMotte-Kerr \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p>
Principal Rodney Nelson from Panther Creek High School.<\/p><\/div>\n
During SMART lunch, students receive tutoring, participate in enrichment activities, make up tests, attend career conversations, meet with college admissions representatives, or participate in clubs and organizations. A schedule is posted of the subject areas holding SMART lunch programs each day of the week.<\/p>\n
Panther Creek High School boasts one of the highest graduation rates in Wake County at 94.7 percent. Students in every subgroup see success at Panther Creek High School, including students with limited English proficiency, African-American students, Latino students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities, according to data released by the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were to name one thing that gets us those academic results, the achievement levels and the graduation rate, it’s SMART lunch,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
![\"PCHS](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/PCHS-vs-WCPSS-Graph.png\")
<\/a>Source: NC Department of Public Instruction<\/p><\/div>\n
Meeting the Needs of All Students<\/strong> Karen Tam \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Left to right, teachers Gail Barkes, James Aldridge, Sarah Greco<\/p><\/div>\n The targets are broken down into specific student subgroups, including students with limited English proficiency, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and students from major racial and ethnic groups. Meeting a standard means the required percentage of students in that subgroup are proficient in the subject area.<\/p>\n Panther Creek High School is the only high school in Wake County to meet all of their federal standard targets for two consecutive years.<\/p>\n Panther Creek High School opened in 2006 with SMART lunch. Nelson acknowledges that having to build a school culture around the program comes with a different set of challenges than needing to change the existing school culture to build a successful SMART lunch program.<\/p>\n Nelson attributes the success of his school\u2019s diverse learning community to the ability of his staff to meet the needs of every student.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our staff really works hard to make sure that every kid is being given the opportunity to be successful,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s really no excuse for any kid to say, ‘I couldn’t get the kind of support from my teachers that I needed.’\u201d<\/p>\n Panther Creek Social Studies teacher Danny Johnson said many students would love to stay after school for extra help or enrichment, but cannot because they do not have a ride home, they have to work or babysit younger siblings, or they have sports practice. Giving them the opportunity during the day, Johnson said, makes a big difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt allows us to get involved in activities that we otherwise would not be able to do because we have too much on our plates already,\u201d said Stephen Howard, a 12th grader at Panther Creek. \u201cThere are all these kids that have all these obligations after school, so SMART lunch gives us another time during the day that we’re allowed to get involved in these activities that otherwise we would not be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson said it’s not just about helping those who need extra study time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted it to be about remediation for some kids and enrichment for some kids, so that it wasn’t just for the kids that were performing at a lower level,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cWe wanted SMART lunch to really be about supporting all kids and increasing their engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Implementing SMART Lunch at Other Schools<\/strong> Athens Drive High School Principal James Hedrick said SMART lunch gives his students a chance to re-engage with their teachers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis gives all students an opportunity during the course of the day to have some time set aside in which they can re-engage with their teachers over a variety of concepts, retake tests,\u201d Hedrick said.<\/p>\n Panther Creek Biology teacher Gail Barkes said it’s important for each school to make it their own.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir student body is different than our student body. Their staff is different than our staff,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you have to find what will work for your school and your environment. That’s one of the things that allowed us to be so successful, that we spent time planning it and making it ours.\u201d<\/p>\n Karen Tam \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Teacher Brad Bensen, left, works at the piano with senior Stephen Howard.<\/p><\/div>\n Brad McMillen, of Wake County Public School System\u2019s Data and Accountability Department, said there are no plans to implement SMART lunch countywide.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery school has its own challenges and its own population. I mean they’re all working toward the same goal, but what the solution might be at a Green Hope or a Panther Creek may not be what’s needed at a Garner or a Holly Springs or a Wakefield,\u201d McMillen said. \u201cUltimately the solutions that are implemented at each school are going to be individualized to the population.\u201d That’s why relationships and building a sense of community within the school are integral to SMART lunch, Nelson said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole concept of SMART lunch is a relationship piece,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt created pretty quickly for us a sense of community.<\/p>\n Panther Creek Math teacher Sarah Greco said relationships can have a big impact on at-risk students.<\/p>\n \u201cThose might be the kids that you give the personal invitation to come to SMART lunch and that could make a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Tenth grade Panther Creek student Kyano Robinson is one of the students whose grades have improved with SMART lunch.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first semester I didn’t have the best grades,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI knew what SMART lunch was but I didn’t really use it. But the second semester I figured out what it was, and I started going to one or two a day and my grades went up a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Karen Tam \/ Raleigh Public Record<\/p> Kyano Robinson, 10th grade, works with teacher Tracey Wooten.<\/p><\/div>\n Nelson said there are always students that do not use SMART lunch. Teachers or administrators work with them to create a SMART lunch schedule, but they are not punished.<\/p>\n Barkes said this helps students learn to take responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cSMART lunch was never intended to be punitive,\u201d Barkes said. \u201cIt’s all about choices. It’s all about options. It’s all about time management, and I think that’s one of the life skills it helps students develop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Panther Creek High School\u2019s SMART lunch program has helped Wake County\u2019s newest high school attain a 94.7 percent graduation rate, with engagement and documented academic success across all student populations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24109,"featured_media":21148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,55],"tags":[1596,1595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt\u2019s easy to look at Panther Creek High School\u2019s address in Cary and make assumptions about its success. However, the diversity of the school\u2019s student population can be seen in the number of federal targets they are required to meet by No Child Left Behind \u2014 36 \u2014 more than any other high school in Wake County.<\/p>\n![\"Left](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/lunch4-771x342.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nSeveral Wake County high schools are now using SMART lunch, including Green Hope High School, Cary High School and Athens Drive High School. School systems from across North Carolina as well as other states have contacted Nelson and expressed interest in the program.<\/p>\n![\"Teacher](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/lunch8-336x515.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n
\nFostering Student Connections<\/strong>
\nMcMillen said dropout prevention research shows that one of the primary reasons children drop out of school is a lack of connection to the school and a lack of a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n![\"Kyano](\"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/lunch7-771x483.jpg\")
<\/a>